Buffing-machine



G.-B.GROVER. BUFPING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 23, 1911.

Patented Apr. 30, 1912.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

I II

WWW

W! T We G. B. GROVER.

BUFPING MACHINE.

APPLICATION IILBD MAR. 23, 1911.

1,024,628. Patented Apr. 30, 1912.

5 SHEETS-811E131 2.

WITNEEEEE- [QB/ N R- W zwgyv G. B. GROVER.

BUPFING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MALE. 23, 1911.

1,024,628. Patented Apr. 30, 1912.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

WITNE55E5 lNVENTDR- WWW 15 65 1/1/11,

G. B. GROVER.

BUFFING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 23, 1911.

1,024,628. Patented Apr. 30, 1912.

Y J-zZi-w I E- i i 7 6 0 6 I 5 I 452 I 9 5 7% a 757 168 O O I l 0 0 Q Fm.- i J.

. 13a I H V n. B. GROVER. BUFFING MACHINE. APPLICATION I I LED MAR. 23, 1911.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

Patented Apr. 30, 1912.

W TNESEEE- MWMW aw,

GEORGEB. GROVER, 0F LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.

BUFFING-MAGHINE..

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 30, 1912.

Application filed March 23, 1911. Serial No. 616,426.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE B. Gnovnn, of Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Buffing-Ma chines, of which the following is a-specification.

The present invention relates to a machine for bufiing leather, particularly such articles as counters and box toes which ane used for stiffening the rear parts and toes respectively of boots and shoes.'

The machine is capable of being used for builing articles of other sorts, but it has its particular use in connection with articles of the particular character indicated.

My object has been to produce a machine by which the inner surfaces of the blanks from which the counters and box toes are made may be buffed or sandpapered over their entire surface, even to the thin skived edges thereof. It should be borne in mind that such blanks are first skived on the flesh side around their outlines so as to reduce the blanks to thin edges at their perimeters. As a result of the skiving the intersections of the bevels with each other at the corners of the blanks and with the fleshsurface of the leather elsewhere, are rough and marred by irregular ridges and tufts of the .uncut leather fibers. These uneven and irregular places are ground off and made smooth'by passing the blanks in contact with a buffing roll having its surface made of sandpaper or equivalent abrasive material.

My invention has for its object to provide an automatic machine in which the blanks may be so held that not only are the rough parts of the skived surfacemade smooth, but also the bevels are smoothed entirely to the edges of the blanks, and the skived edges may, if desired, be reduced to knife edges without removing too much of the stock in the central and thick part of the blank.

My principal object is to combine the capability of doing this work with rapidity of operation, and to provide the machine with means by which the article maybe securely held while being buffed, while re ducing the number of necessary parts to the minimum and making these parts of simple construction.

Another object is to enable the machine to be used indifi'erently for buffing or scour-- ing uneven surfaces such as already noted, and for scouring surfaces of articles of substantially uniform thickness. I

In carrying the foregoing objects into effect I have devised a machine embodying novel features which will be hereinafter fully described and claimed.

vReferring to the drawings, Figure 1\represents a front elevation of such a machine. Fig. 2 represents a plan of the machine. Fig. 3 is a cross section on line 33 of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a vertical section on line 44 of Fig. 1. Fig. 5. is a front elevation on an enlarged scale of the working parts at the right-hand end of the machine. F 6 is a plan view of the same. Fig. 7 is a rear elevation of the same. Fig. 8 is a longitudinal section on an enlarged scale on line 88 of Fig. 2. Fig. 9 is a cross section on line 9-9 of Fig. '2, also on an enlarged scale.- Fig. 10 is a cross-section on line 10 10 of Fig. 8. Figs. 11, 12, 13 and 14 are sectional views similar to Fig. 10 showing modifications inthe work support adapted for different sorts of work.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in all the figures.

The machine includes in its-construction frames 1 and 2 at front and rear respectively, and a table 3 supported upon the tops of the end frames. The driving mechanism is mounted upon the frames below the table, while the parts which act directly upon the work and which may be called the working parts are arranged above the table. These working parts include a buffing roll 4, a brush 5, a holding roll 6, feed rolls 7 and 8 and a work carrier 9. There is also a blower 10 for carrying away the dust produced by the bufiing roll.

The bufling roll, brush and blower fan are driven at a high rate of speeed, while the work carrier is moved at a low speed. Power from any'suitablc source is delivered to a main shaft 11 through a belt passing about one of the two pulleys 12, 13. Secured upon the shaft 11 also is a pulley 14 around which passes a belt 15 which drives the buffing roll and blower. This belt passes around both a pulley 16 secured to the shaft 17 of the bufiing roll and a pulley 18 on the shaft of the blower fan, being caused to hug these pulleys by an intermediate pulley wheel 19 which also serves as a slack adjuster. The brush 5 is driven from the 'I n uances shaft 1? by a belt 29 passing around a pulley 21 on said shaft and another pulley 252 on the shaft ot the brush. its the shalt 3.1 is driven at a high speed, those rotating elements which are thus driven directly therefrom are also caused to rotate at a high speed.

For moving the work carriage and feed rolls at a slow speed l provide a speed-reducing train consisting of a step pulley 23 on a countershatt E l, which'is driven by a belt 25 from a step pulley 26 on the shattll, a pinion 2'? connected with pulley 23, a gear 28 on a third shaft 29, and a pinion 30 on shaft 29 meshing with a gear 31. The pulley 23 and gear 31 are both supported on shaft 241-, but may rotate loosely thereon. The gear, however, may be connected with the shalt by means of a clutch member 33 secured to the shaft, having a set of clutch teeth with which complemental teeth 35 on the gear are adapted to engage. Such.

engagement is effected through treadle 36 on a lever 3'? which is pivoted to a pin 38 held in lugs 39 on a ot the trams l. 3? is pivoted to a link so, which is also pivoted to a lever ll hung at 42 upon bracket 13 projecting from one of the bearings at of shaft 241; Said lever n has a yoke 4-5 em bracing the hub of gear and provided with studs entering groove 46 in such huh. Upon depressing the treadle the gear is so moved as to engage its teeth 85 with the teeth of clutch 33. When this engagement is the shaft 2% is turned at a'slow speed through the speed-reducing mecha nism just described". A spring d? tends to disconnect the clutch. members. As the pu l leys 52,3 and 26 have several steps, several dillerent speeds may be imparted to the shaft 24L, all of which are much lower than the speed of shaft 11.

The shaft 24 is secured to a disk 48 hav ing a cam path 49 (Fig. l) in which is con tained a roll 50 carried. by a lever 51 pivoted at 52 upon a bracket 53 secured to a part ol' the frame. The lever 51 metres "the work carriage 9 through a link 54 connected to an arm 55 of the carriage and to the lever. or rocker 51. Provision is made for attaching the linlr 54 to difierent points of the rocker 51 so as to vary the length oil travel of the work carriage according to the size of the work pieces. Accordingly the rocker is provided with a number otpins 56 over any one of which the hooked end of the link may passl fhen the link is thus hooked over any of the pins, it is secured lay a thimble 57 which fits over the pin and into the hook. The opening in the under side of the hook is smaller than the diameter of the thimble hut greater than the diameter of the stud, so that the link cannot be displaced when the thimble is in place, but can he readily removed from one stud and slipped over another when the thirnble is removed. he shown in the drawings, the arm or rocker 51 is designed for six diit'erent sizes of work, and it is so shaped that when at the extreme right hand end of its travel the carriage will be at the same point when connected with any one of the pins. That is, the arm is so shaped that when both it and the carriage are at their'extreine right hand travel the link may he connected with any of the studs without requiring either the link or arm to be shifted. @n the other limit of travel, however, the positionof the carriage varies greatly according to which stud the link is engaged with, as will be readily evident from an inspection out Fig. 1 which shows the parts at this limit of their travel. The carriage 9 is termed as a slide having lips 58 which travel between guides 59 on part of the table and are retained by strips 60 which overhang the lips. The central part of the carriage is recessed, leaving an open space 61, and over the top of the recess is mounted a removable plate beveled edges adapted to slide which n: in undercut grooves 63 in the opposite sides ot the carriage, as is shownhest in Fig. 10. Part of the plate 62 is cut outat Slto provide an open space having heveled edges 'lh'e beveled edges of the open. space correspond in shape to the skived edges of the blanks on which the machine operates. ln the case of a counter the shape of these hevels is the same as the shape of the counter, while for a bot: toe the shape is that of the hon toe.- lhe beveled portion 65 forms a depression of which the outline and size correspond exactly to a counter or her; toe oi particular style and size, and the open space is of the same size and shape as the raised portion left after the counter or other blank has been skived. Thus when the blank is placed on the plate directly over the opening its skived edges rest on the beveled portion 65 and its thick central part may be depressed into the opening 64-. The work carrier travels under the hutling roll practically in contact therewith so that the surface of the work is brought into actual contact with the surface of the roll. The thick central part of the'work is alole to-yield into the opening 6% when pressed upon by the roll. Thus the skived face of the blank is brought substantially level and is bufied over its en tire surface, the skived edges being smoothed and cut away quite to the perimeter of the blank, without causing the thickness of the central part, where thickness is. required, to he materially reduced Plates apertured for blanks 0t difi'erent characters, izes and styles may readily be substituted for one another by being slipped cndwise into and oi. the grooves of the carriage.

of the side members and the web for a part of the length of the carriage, whereby one of the side members is permitted to spring enough to grip and release the plate. The

' clamping bolt is passed through the side member and threaded into the web as shown in Fig. 10, its head being contained in a recess 67 in the side member, whereby it is protected from injury but is accessibleto a socket wrench.

The mo'vementof the carriage in feeding the work to the bufiing roll is from left to right with reference to Figs. 1 and 8, ani in order that the work may be held upothe supporting plate, a clamping. foot 68 is provided. This foot is mounted upon a holder 69 which has a pivot pin-7O projecting at both ends and contained between guide fingers 71 which are carried by the work carriage or slide. These fingers areformed upon a plate 7 2which is secured to the under side of the web of the carriage, and project to the left therefrom. They are arranged in pairs flanking the holder 69,-and each pair confining and guiding one of the ends of the pivot pin 70. A part of the holder extends downwardly toward the bed or table of the machine and has rolls 73 and 74 which engage cam bars or plates 75, 76 which are fixed to the bed. A spring 77 is connected at its opposite ends with studs or hooks 78, 79 projecting respectively from the plate 72 and holder 69. Such spring keeps the holder 69 at the inner end of the fingers 71 and tends to tilt the holder so as to raise the clamping foot 68. When the carriage is at the outer limit of its movement and the roll 73 is ov r the low part of the cam'75, the spring is efi'ective to raise the foot, as shown in Fig. 8, so that a blank maybe slipped under it. As the carriage moves toward the butting roll, the foot-holder is tilted by the cam and causes the foot to press on the work and secure it against dis-- placement by the bufling roll. Pressure is applied from the holder to the foot yieldingly in order that the foot may accommodate blanks of various thicknesses, and to this end the foot is pivoted to the holder upon a pivot pin 80 and is acted'upon by a spring 81. The latter surrounds a post 82 projecting from the holder and bears against an abutment 83 of the holder and a collar 84 which slides upon the post and is contained between the arms of a fork- 85 on the clamping foot, such arms having studs 86 contained in 'a groove 87 of the collar. A

nut 88 is used to adjust the tension. of the spring.

The cam 76 extends beyond the cam 75 and near its right hand end is provided with a y depression 7 6, adjacent to which is a stop 89. The cams 75 and 76 are made separate in order that cam 75 may be removed and a longer or shorter cam substituted when blanks of greater or less length are to be acted upon. It is intended that the clamping foot should. operate immediately after the carriage commences its travel, and it is therefore necessary that a cam 75 of such length should be used as to secure this result and allow the clampingfoo-t to rise when the carriage is at the left hand limit. Accordingly when the connection of the link 54 with the arm 51 is shifted as above described to increase or diminish the length of travel of the carriage, it is necessary to change the cam 75 correspondingly. The, cam 76 alone serves to operate the foot with blanks of the shortest length, and so at its left hand end has a depression 7 6 which is locatedat the point where the roll 74 lies when the link 54 is connected to the lowermost stud upon the rm 51 and is at the left hand limit of motion. The rolls 73 and 74 are mounted side by side upon the same stud ever may be the length of such travel, the

position of the cam depression 7 6 need not be changed.

Beside the .carriage is mounted a gageholder 90 which supports gages 91 and 92. One of these gages 91 is formed toengage one of the corners ofthe blanks, while the other gage 92 is engaged by the edge of the blank. These two gages position the blank accurately and are adjustable so that any part of the blank may come over the opening 64, having longitudinal slots through which pass pins or bolts 93, about which they may move angularly and longitudinally. Clamping collars 94 are mounted upon the bolts and secure the gages. The gage-holder90 is movable with the carriage for a short distance in order to hold the work in place until the latter is grasped by the clamping foot, and to this end is arranged to slide upon a guide 95 having an undercut guidew'ay, as shown in Fig. 9. One side of the guideway is formed by an adjustable gib 96. The guide has an abut ment collar 98 through which passes a pin 99 connected to the gage-holder and having a head 100 on its outer end. A spring 101 bears against the abutment collar and against the holder tending to move the latter in the same direction as that in which the carriage moves when feeding. A shoulder 102 on the gage-holder bears against a shoulder 103 on the carriage and is held against such shoulder by the spring. When the carriage commences its feeding movement the gage-holder is caused to follow it by the spring until it is arrested by the head 100 coming in contact with the collar 08. By this time the clamping foot has acted and the gages the not needed. In order that the gage-holder may be placed at the different points to which the carriage returns, the guide 95 is also movable, being supported upon a shelf 104 secured to the side of the carriage guideway and being provided with a post 105 passing through a longitudinal slot 106 in such shelf. A spring 107 presses a friction pad or plate 108 against the under side of the shelf. Such pad or plate may be of any material having sufficient friction, and is preferably wood. Adjustable nuts 100 on the post regulate the degree of friction. Thus whenever the travel of the carriage is changed as previously described, the gage-holder may be readily shifted to correspond with the changed outer limit of travel.

The holding roll 6 previously mentioned is located just beyond the butting roll and immediately above the plane of the supporting plate 62, so as to engage the work after it passes the buffing roll and prevent it from being displaced by the buffing roll, partic ularly after it hasbeen released by the clamping foot. This holding roll is driven with a peripheral speed equal to the travel of the table, and is preferably driven by the table itself. It is mounted upon a shaft which held in arms 110, 111 and is provided with a friction roll 1.12 which bears against the upper surface of the carriage. The arms 110 and 111 are pivoted upon brackets at opposite sides of the carriage and are acted upon by springs 113, 114, which draw the rolls toward the table. Adjustable stops 115, 116 limit the pressure with which the roll 6 and roll 112 engage the work and the carriage respectively. After passing the holding roll the work rides up on a lifter 117 which is preferably a wedge-shaped block having a sharp edge lying as close as possible to the plane of the carriage and plate 62. The lifter is secured to the bracket 118 by a bolt 119 which passes through a slot 120 in the bracket (Fig. 7 and enables the lifter to be adjusted until its edge may enter between the surface of the plate 16 and the advancing end of the work.

While passing over the lifter the work is cleaned by the brush 5 previously described, which is rotated by the shaft 17 of the butfing roll at a high speed, as previously described. The work is finally wholly withdrawn from the machine by the feed rolls 7 and 8 previously mentioned, one of which is above the lifter and the other of which is and screws described.

roagess contained in a recess 124 in the lifter. The roll 7 is driven from the shaft 29 by means of a pulley 125 thereon, a belt 126 surrounding said pulley, a shaft 127 which carries a pulley 123 also engaged by the belt, and gears 129 and 130 on the shaft 127 and the shaft of the roll 7 respectively. The roll is so mounted that it may yield to accommodate work of various thicknesses, being mounted in a holder 131 pivoted upon the shaft 127, which thus permits the roll to rise and descend without taking the gears 130 and 129 out of mesh. The spring 132 presses the roll toward the work, acting against a lug 133 on the holder 131, and

reacting against a crossbar 134 extending between the brackets 118 and 135. The spring is held in place and its tension regulated by a bolt 136 passing through the lug 133 and crossbar 184, and having an adjusting nut 137 threaded upon one end. Beyond the lifter block is a plate 138 upon which the work is fed by the rolls 7 and S. This plate is inclined downwardly toward the front of the machine at such a pitch that the scoured articles deposited upon it fall readily into the receptacle placed beneath.

T have made provisionfor adjusting the butting roll so that it may remove more or less stock from the work, and also so that it maybe inclined and act to a greater extent at one edge than at the other of the work. For this purpose the bearings 139 and 140 in which the shaft 17 is held are carried by vertically movable posts 141, 142, respectively, shown in Figs. 2, 3, and 4. These posts slide in upright guides 143 and 144 and are entered by adjusting screws 145 and 146 respectively. The adjusting screws carry bevel pinions 147, 148, which are engaged by pinions 140, 150 on a shaft 151. The shaft is mounted in bearings 152 which hang from the under side of the table, and has no connection with the other parts of the machine. It carries a hand wheel 153 at the rear by which it may be turned to raise or lower the shaft 17 through the gears One of the pinions, as 149, may be made either fast or loose upon the shaft, while the other pinion 150 is permanently fast. Thus by loosening the pinion 149, one end only of the bufling roll shaft may be raised or lowered, whereby to alter the inclination of the axis of the roll when it is desired to grind off the work more at one side of its longitudinal center than at the other. To permit of thus changing the line of the shaft, without causing it to bind in its bearings, the latter are pivotally connected to posts 141 and 142, s shown in Fig. 3. Each post has arms 154 embracing the bearing in which are held studs 155 entering sockets in opposite sides of the bearing. The studs are adjustable and their inner ends are preferably tapered so as to take up looseness. Thus one end of the roll shaft may be raised or lowered more than the other, without causing the hearings.

to bind.

Provision is made for adjusting the ten passes through a slot. 160 in the arm 156,-

and into a shoulder .161 upon the table, permitting the arm to be raised or lowered and to be' clamped in any position.'

The blower hereinbefore referred to is not a material part of'my invention, but is pro-- vided merely for the ordinary purpose of carrying away dust. With it is designed to be used a hood and conduit, theformer being placed over the buffing roll and brush and thelatter being connected with the intake of the blower. As these parts obscure the greater part of the bufiing roll, brush and feed .rolls, they are not shown in the drawings, and as they are not claimed as a part 1of my invention, the omission is immateria I will now describe the operation of they machine :--The parts being'm the positions shown in the drawings, and a supporting plate 62 designed to support a counterbeing secured upon the carriage, the counter to be buffed is laid upon the plate with its grain side downward andthe skived surface upward. The gages being adjusted as shown in Fig. 2 locate the blank so that its edges coincide with the outer boundary of the beveled portion 65, the thick central part of the blank being over the space 6t. The operator then presses upon the treadle 36, connecting the clutch members 34, 35 and causing the carriage tobe given its feeding movement through the medium of cam 48, rocker 51 and link 54. The .ga eholder and gages follow the carriage un er the influence of spring 101 until thevroll 73 of the foot-holder68 has ridden up on the cam 7 5 and caused thefoot to grip the end of the blank. Thereupon the gage-holder is arrested and the carriage proceeds under the bufiing roll carr ing the blank toward the latter. As the b ank is unsecured at its end nearest to the roll, which for convenience of description I will term the forward. end, the roll is driven so that that portion which acts on the work travels in the same direction as the carriage. As the peripheral speed of-the roll is much greater than the speed of the carriage, the abrasive surface of; the roll rubs over the work and cuts away all uneven and rough parts. It also exerts a pull on the blank tending to drag it forward faster than the carriage moves, which pull is resisted by the grip of the clamping foot. The latter and its holder being supported by the fingers7 1, which in turn are carried by the work carriage, and being drawn forward by the spring 77 continue in motion until the foot is as close to the surface of the bufling roll as it can safely be brought. At this time, however, the roll 74c drops into the cam depression 7 6 and the roll 7 3 strikes the stop 89.- Thus the foot is arrested so that "it does not strike and injure the bufling roll, and at the same time it is raised so as to allow the carriage to continue its travel with the blank. The

stoppage of the foot and its holder offers no impediment to-the continued movement of yielding mode ofconnecting' the foot to the.

carriage also permits the supporting plates 62 to be easily removed and replaced, because prior to thus removing or placing one of these plates the foot-holder is withdrawn from the guides or fingers, leaving's ificient free space over the fingers 71 to ena Ie the plate to be-slipped out of or into the guideways 63. When the blank is released by the raising of the foot, it has already passed the bufling roll far enough to be engaged by the holding roll 6 and to be retarded by the latter so as under no conditions to travel faster than the carriage. The sizes of the parts are so designed that even the shortest blanks are engaged by the holding roll be-' fore they are released by the clamping foot.

The blank 6 rides up on the wedge or lifter- 117, is cleaned by the brush 5 and then fed.

portant feature of the invention. As it is' considerably deeper than the thickness of any article designed to be operated upon by the machine, it allows the central part of the article or blank to sink. through the 'opening 64 in the plate to such an extent as may be required to bring the highest point of its sliived side into the plane of the support 62, so that the bevels of the blank may be ground'oif to as thin edges as desired without causing too much material to be removed from the center of the blank. The plate 62, which is referably a thin steel plate, is supported a jacent to the outfalls finished into the lines of the aperture by studs 162 which are set into holes 163 in the transverse Web of the carriage. There is a large number of such holes and the studs may be set into any of them and so placed as to give support to the plate near the aperture thereof, Whatcx er may be the size and form of the aperture. These studs have heads of exactly the right height to hold the plate horizontal.

For some classes of work such as box toes, where the area of the blank is great as compared with the length of its perimeter, and also when working upon soft and limp stock, I have found it desirable to give a certain amount of support to that part of the blank which is pressed through the aperture 64:. For this purpose ll remove the studs 1G2 and place in the chamber 61 a pad of soft and elastic material such as rubber. The pad, of course, does not prevent the blank from being depressed through the opening 64,}? ut gives a yield.- ing support to the central part of the blank in a plane below that of the supporting plate. The plate 62 may also be removed altogether and the pad alone substituted, whereupon the carriage is fitted to feed articles of uniform thickness such as shoe soles and the like to the butting roll.

Fig. 11 shows the use of a rubber pad 170 for the purpose last above indicated, such pad being placed under the plate 62 and furnishing ayielding support for the central part of the box toe or other blank which is placed over the aperture of the plate 62, and the edges of which are rigidly supported by the plate. The rubber pad is one form of a yielding or spring support for the central part of the blank. A modification of this idea including another form of spring support is illustrated in Fig. 12 where the sup-- port is a plate 1'71 extending across the aperture of the plate 62 and being support-- ed by springs 173. When the plate 62 is re moved and the rubber pad or other spring support alone holds the articles, the carriage has the appearance shown in 13 where the rubber pad is again represented by 170 and the article to be buffed, such as a shoe sole, by 174. When an article of uniform. thickness is to be bufled it may be placed upon any part of the supporting surface provided only that it is so-placed as to come against the abrasive surface of the roll, and provided also it may be gripped by the clamping foot. l contemplate, however, that for some classes of work where the rubber pad constitutes the spring support, the friction of the article on the rubber may be sutlicient to withhold it against the'drawing action of the butting roll, and in such cases I may omit to secure it by the clamping foot. 1

A modification of the idea last described roaaees is represented in Fig. 14 where the sole or other article of approximately, uniform thickness is placed upon a modified form of yielding or spring support, which here is a plate 175 mounted upon springs 176. The plate itself is rigid, but by virtueof the springs it may yield to various degrees to accommodate articles of different thicknesses, while one side or end of the plate may yield more or less than the opposite sideor end when the articles are thicker at one side or end than at theother. The rubber pad is capable of yielding locally at every point, and so may be used Where the articles have small areas of uneven thickness.

I desire to note at this point that the butter may be of any character whatever as desired, and that its specific character is not a feature of the invention. 1 have chosen for illustration as the buffer a rotating roll, for such is the almost universal form of the buffing tool, ll reserve the right, however, to use any otherkind of butter or butting tool than a roll, if at any time some other sort of tool may be found practical or de sirable for any purpose, and l consider that the substitution of any other such tool is withinthe scope of my invention as expressed in the claims. Where the term buffing roll is used in the latter, it is to be understood in a generic sense as meaning any kind of a tool suitable for butting purposes.

I claim,

1. A buffing machine-comprising a butting roll and a work support, having a recess entirely surrounded by the material of the support, the rim of Which is beveled, and means forcausing said work-support to travel reciprocatively past the roll in a straight line. i

2. A machine for buffing the slrived surfaces of articles havin skived or beveled edges, comprising a bu ng roll, and a work support, the latter consisting of a plate having an opening through it of a fo m sub stantially the same and an area less than, the form and area respectively of the article.

3. in a machine of the character and for the purpose described, a work supporting plate having an opening through its entire thickness and beveled at the edge of the opening,

l. in abutting machine the combination with a butting roll of a Work carriage, a guide connected with the carriage and extending in the direction of movement of the latter, a work clamp held by such guide and movable therein relatively to the carriage, and a yielding means connected with the clamp and carriage tending to place and retain the former in its operative position,

5. A butting machine comprising in combination a' reciprocating work carriage,

lltl

means for moving such carriage back and forth, a clamping means associated with the carriage for securing articles to be buffed thereon, a bufling roll mounted in close proximity to the supporting portion of the carriage, a holding roll arranged adjacent to and beyond the buffing roll for holding the advancing ends of the articles as they pass the bufling roll, means for driving said roll with its peripheral speed substantially the same as the speed of the table, a lifter having an edge arranged in close contact with the supporting surface of the carriage, and feed rolls arranged to grasp the blank as it passes over such lifter and remove it therefrom.

6. In a bufling machine the combination of a work carriage having a substantially plane work-supporting surface, a butting roll mounted with its surface in close proximity to the said supporting surface, a clamp associated with the carriage at one side of the butting roll, a holding roll located close to the surface of the carriage upon the opposite of the buffing roll, and means whereby the carriage drives said holding roll at a peripheral speed substantially equal to the feeding travel of the carriage.

7. The combination ofa butting roll, a carriage adapted to support work pieces and tocarry said pieces past the roll, a gage for locating work pieces upon the carriage,

a holder for said gage movable in the direction of feeding movement of the carriage, means for so moving the gage in unison with the carriage, a clamping foot forgripping the work on'the carriage, and means operated by the movement of the carriage for causing said foot to grip the work, the

movement of the gage-holder simultaneously with the carriage causing the gage to retain the work in proper position until the clamping foot has become operative.

8. In a bufling machine n combination with a buffing roll, a carriage movable back and forth adapted to support work pieces'of various lengths, and carry them past the roll, and means for so moving the carriage comprising a pivoted actuator and a link pivoted to the carriage and arm, together with means for securing the link at points on the actuator varying in distance from the pivot thereof so as to vary the extent of movement of the carriage, such points being in the arc of a'circle of which the said link is the radius and of which the center coincides with pivot of the link when both carriage and actuator are at the end of feeding travel, whereby the end of the feed movement of the carriage occurs at the same point under all conditions.

9. In a bufling machine a butting roll, a work carriage, means for moving said carriage back and forth past the roll, said means being adjustable for varying the length of travel of the carriage in accordance with the length of the work, a workholding device associated with the carriage, means operated by the feeding movement of the carriage for causing said holding device to become operative, a gage arranged in such relation to the carriage in the outermost limit of its travel as to locate the work pieces correctly thereon, and means for moving the gage synchronously with the carriage until the work-holding device has become operative, such gage being also adjustable with the means for moving it into various positions to correspond with. the various limits of travel of the carriage. 10. In a buffing machine a work-holder comprising a carriage having a recess, and a plate bridging-such recess, the plate having an opening-of form and area respectively similar to and less than the form and area of a shoestifl'ener blank.

11. In a machine of the character described, a work-holder consisting of acarriage having a central depression or recess and a supporting plate detachably, secured to the carriage over such recess, and having 1 an opening extending entirely through it of a form similar to the form of a shoe stiff- -ener blank, and dimensions less than cor-'- responding dimensions of such blank.

12. In a bufling machine a work-carrying slide or carriage having a depression or recess in its upper side, adapted to contain an elastic pad, and having guides in its flanking side walls adapted to contain detachably a holding plate.

13. In a machine of the character de ing the work upon the carriage during its movement toward the butting roll, a holding roll for retarding the work as it passes I the bufling roll, feeding rolls for carrying away the ,finished work, means for causing the clamp to grip the work, means for driving the holding roll with a peripheral speed substantially equal to that of the carriage, and means for driving the feeding rolls, such clamp, holding roll and feeding roll being yieldingly mounted to accommodate stock of different thicknesses.

14. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a buffing roll of a carriage arranged to reciprocate in a straight line-past the operative face of the roll, a yielding support for the article to bebuffed of greater superficial area than the article secured upon the carriage, and means for securing the article upon the support to prevent displacement by the friction'of the bufiing roll.

15. In a buffing machine, a work support constructed to hold skived shoe stiffener blanks While being; buftecl, said support having rigicl'means for supporting only the skivecl edges of the blanks, and a yielding support for the central part of the blank.

16. In a buffing machine, a Work support comprising in combination a plate having arecess said plate being adapted to support the edges of the Work at the boundary of the recess, and a spring beneath the recess for yieldingly supporting the central 10 part of the WOIk.

' In testimony whereof I have afi'lxed my signature, in presence of two Witnesses.

GEURGE B. GRUVER.

"W31 messes ASHLEY BOWEN, ELINOR l. MATtsoN. 

